London 2012 Olympics: passengers braced for heavy delays at Heathrow as athletes get VIP passport lanes

Passengers arriving at Heathrow this summer could face lengthy delays at passport control as immigration staff are being redeployed from their normal roles to collect biometric data off Olympic athletes arriving in dedicated passport lanes.

Visiting athletes have been encouraged to supply biometric data – such as fingerprints and photographs – in advance but those who do not will need to have the information taken by border staff.

The information will then be checked against immigration and security watch-lists of terrorists and criminals stored on a database.

But the Border Agency have warned the process, which will costs more than £2 million, could result in normal passengers being delayed passing through border control.